Posted
by
Soulskill
on Friday June 12, 2009 @02:23AM
from the tenuous-secrecy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Sony is hinting that previously released games might be able to use its motion sensor controller. Jack Tretton said it would be 'absolutely conceivable' that existing games could get a patch when the controller comes out next year — and implied that some of the games shown at E3 this year could ship with motion sensing built into them. The president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America is also not happy about the leaks that preceded the company's E3 press conference (for example, details on the PSP Go). Tretton says it has become impossible to keep a secret in the gaming industry because of third-party publishers — and he's worried about the ramifications that will have as the company develops the PS4."
Joystiq's Law of the Game column has a related article questioning the value of NDAs now that the sharing of information has become so easy.

I been out of the video game industry for a while. But in the general IT world, NDAs seem to be doubling in size every year. The NDA at one company I signed this year easy made my apartment lease agreement look smaller (~40 pages).

It takes me a while to read 40 pages, and I'm a fast reader. Especially 40 pages of olde-English legalese and latin terms.

Both times I've refused, the people asking me to sign it had no clue as to why I wouldn't sit there and read the whole damn thing while they were staring at me and waiting. I told them if they were serious, they'd give me an NDA that I could read while sitting there.

In both instances they gave me a concise version. There's simply no reason to have an NDA bigger than 5 pages.

It takes me a while to read 40 pages, and I'm a fast reader. Especially 40 pages of olde-English legalese and latin terms.
Both times I've refused, the people asking me to sign it had no clue as to why I wouldn't sit there and read the whole damn thing while they were staring at me and waiting. I told them if they were serious, they'd give me an NDA that I could read while sitting there.
In both instances they gave me a concise version. There's simply no reason to have an NDA bigger than 5 pages.

At my work, our standard NDA is 1-page long. I mean, really, you don't need a lot of space to say "don't talk about this until we say it's ok." Everything after that in an NDA tends to address penalties.

If you're concerned about seeing foul language at work, I generally wouldn't advise visiting any site where public comments of any type are posted. Fortunately, my boss isn't going to come after me for randomly viewing the [a-z]-word, especially if I'm not the one who posted it in the first place. If yours is, this might not be the best place to browse.

That said, putting n----- and the rest of it in the tags is quite juvenile, but some people will be juvenile, and those people unfortunately tend to gravitat

now we just have to figure out what this motion-sensing thing can do to gameplay while still requiring little enough movement from the player to keep going for hours.

Of course it definitely won't top the accuracy of a skilled gamer with a controller, or another one with a mouse and keyboard. Not to mention data density per movement. There is a reason why the keyboard is the most expressive form of user input, you know.

Uhm.... this is Sims 8 on PS4 dude. Sounds to me like your consciousness lost some parts of your memory in the transfer and your subconscious is making up for it in the form of an unintentionally ironic Slashdot post on SimWeb.

To get an Admin blink your right eye 3 times while rubbing your nose and they should be able to help you out with that...

A lot of people stand up all day at work and do work with their arms, it's very possible. Lifting a couple of light controllers is nothing compared to stacking shelves or other manual labour. You might have to take a break every few hours, but apparently we're meant to be doing that even with the normal games..

Besides, look at Wii Fit. A lot of people want to combine exercise and entertainment. I know I do, I'm a little annoyed at myself this week for playing so much Red Faction: Guerilla - I haven't out fo

Yes, sport without actually having to have a large group of friends who are free and willing to play at any one time, or the weather to be good, or to embarrass yourself in front of people, or to be able to just pause/stop whenever you want, or even just for a bit of variety from doing other sports or variety in the scenery if you like jogging/running etc mean that a lot of people would find it worthwhile.

20-frickin-million people have bought Wii Fit, and now there are better programs coming out that incorporate personal trainer type assistants that can plan out an exercise regime for you depending on what your goals are and what exercise equipment you have at home. That's a great use for computers - most people don't really need or want to pay for a personal trainer to make a varied workout plan for them. I no more want to write up a little exercise chart to follow any more than I want to write letters to people when I can just email them instead. As it is my exercise routine is pretty random and unstructured but I gave my Wii away to my sister before Wii Fit came out, and I don't feel it's worth paying for another one and Wii fit, considering it would be the only thing I'd use it for (PS3 does everything else - better games, PVR, blu-ray player, web browsing).

Just think about it - if you put some rewards into WoW or some other game that could only be unlocked by jogging for 20 minutes on a treadmill each day or whatever, soon a lot of gamer geeks would be just as fit as people who are more into real sports. I've never been a big sports fan (used to just end up just hurting the opposing team in football (soccer style, not american football)), but I do love games and staying in shape.

If they really sounded off they would have given more details. Instead the title is misleading and it is only a slight mention of discomfort.
If they were really mad they would have heads rolling. If they wanted more publicity, they could have canceled the E3 presentation.

...and he's worried about the ramifications that will have as the company develops the PS4.

It's actually so difficult to contain leaks that the president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America has himself resorted to leaking the news there's a new Playstation console coming out in the future. THANKS third party publishers!

Well it wouldn't have been surprising at all for the next console to be a minor update for the new HDMI standard, etc. with possibly faster chips/more memory. Wasn't there an article about that possibility a week or so ago?

Blaming 3rd party publishers for leaking information is like shooting yourself into a leg. It's Sonys own fault that the information got leaked in advance. I guess Sony wants to be the one to tell the tale, which it's entitled to but if information is leaked, maybe they should pick the 3rd party's more carefully next time who they are going to tell in advance.

Possibly. If I were a Wii developer, and I determined that with a little more time I could put my game on 2 platforms instead of 1, why wouldn't I? (unless I am Nintendo:) )

Is that a bad thing?

Suddenly the PS3 becomes not only a competitor to the 360, but also a (more) direct competitor to the Wii, while offering something that neither the Wii or 360 has, access to the "other" style of gameplay.

Making information more quickly available do not lessen the value of an NDA or its strength. they are both dependent on the value people put on the information, and how willing they are to respect their word and/or a contract, there is no value associated with how quick the info covered by the NDA can be spread. OTOH it become incresingly digfficult to respect a NDA when you have to read and understand 30 pages of legaleze. If anything, it is the lawyer fault by making NDA so obcenly tight and long legalze,

Nothing gets "leaked" before a major trade press event like this unless the company wants it to happen. The "BAW i dun lik when peeps say stuff b4 my speech" bit is just an act, and not a convincing one. Leaks build hype, and everyone knows this. It's all part of the show.

Jack Tretton is CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. Last time I checked Sony Japan was the company that actually produced things, and made things. Jack works for a shell of a company which is mostly responsible for local AD's and running promotions. I'd be upset too if my job as a glorified county fair caller become more marginalized. "Step Right Up! See The Amazing New Sony Product!" He's just afraid Sony will realize they don't really need him.